Viewing the world map, you will find that China is a vast country situated at the eastern part of Eurasia and the western coast of the Pacific Ocean. Covering a land area of 3,706,581 square miles
(9,600,000 square kilometers), China is the third largest of the world, inferior to Russia and
Canada. It is 3,231 miles long from east to west and 3,417.5 miles long from north to south. With the entire territory shaping like a rooster, China's northernmost end reaches Mohe in Heilongjiang Province; the southernmost is at Zengmu Ansha in Nansha Islands, the easternmost at conjunction of Heilongjiang River and the Wusuli River, while the western at the Pamirs.

China is an ancient country having a profound history. Originated in the eastern area of the Yellow River Region, the country's civilization is over 5,000 years old and was considered one of four ancient civilizations of the world, along with the civilizations of the ancient Babylon, the ancient Egypt and the ancient India. The first dynasty of Chinese history started from the Xia Dynasty (2070BC-1600BC) and the last one was the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), while the most glorious period were the Qin (221BC-206BC), Han (206BC-220), Tang (618-907) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties. During thousands of years of feudal ruling, Chinese people have created brilliant science and art culture, like the Four Great Inventions, the poetry, paintings and Chinese calligraphy. Also, a great amount of cultural relics such as the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors left by Chinese ancestors have become the treasures of the nation and the wonder of the world.

Founded in 1949 by the Communist Party, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a unified multi-ethnic country. 56 nationalities are now living in 34 direct administrative regions including 23 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly-governed city regions–Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing and two special administrative regions (SAR)–Hong Kong and Macau. The 55 ethnic minorities mainly live in Chongqing, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Yunnan. China is also the most populous country in the world. Being over 1.3 billion (in the end of 2007), the country's population is about 22 percent of the world population. The most populous part is the eastern coastal areas.
Almost 94 percent of Chinese people live in the Southeast China which covers 43 percent of the country's land area; while the other six percent people live in the northwestern areas which cover 57 percent of the territory.
China has become stronger and stronger in economy, science and technology. Currently, the nation's economy has been growing rapidly, with the GDP dramatically increasing year by year. The GDP growth rate of the first half year of 2008 has reached 10.3. In 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2012, China successfully launched the Shenzhou-6 and 7 manned spacecrafts, the unmannned Shenzhou-8, and the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft which carried three astronauts to the outer space. In August, 2008, the XXIX Olympiad was successfully held in its capital Beijing. Most Chinese people are now living a well-to-do life and enjoy their happiness in this stable and harmonious society.

Language

As one of the six official languages used by UN (United Nations), Chinese now has earned itself greater status in the World. The official language of China is the Mandarin, which is the very name of 'Hanyu' or 'Putonghua', belonging to Sino-Tibetan.
Putonghua is a parlance in mainland China. It is the common language of all modern Han nationality people. In Taiwan Province and Hong Kong, it is called 'Guoyu' while in Singapore and Malaysia, it is often called 'Huayu'.

Mandarin is shaped and based on the Beijing dialect and other dialects spoken in the northern areas of China. Students are often taught mandarin as 'Yuwen' in their schoolbooks. It is beyond all doubt that mandarin is the language used as a mother tongue by the most people accounting for about one fifth of the world's population. Chinese once had very great influence on some peripheral countries with their languages and characters, such as Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

English is a required course and universal education in China and has great popularity. Nowadays many Chinese people can speak basic English, especially the youth, students, and staff of service trades like hotels, restaurants, airlines, banks and post offices.

Population

China, with over 1.31828 billion people (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) as of May, 2007, is without doubt the most populous country in the world. According to the census at the end of 2004, the ratio of the sexes is about 51.5% male and 48.5% female. Some 41.76% of the population resides in the urban cities and towns while the rest is in rural areas.

China is growing destination for studying medicine since China Universities is cheap cost wise and highly reputed in technology wise and so the forefront in the field of education and more specifically medicine, besides the mentioned specialization, China has been offering practically all specializations known to mankind.

China has opened its doors for foreigners who wished to come down to China for higher education. Universities in China are becoming highly international. When you study here, you are likely to find yourself meeting students from all over the world. Many countries are represented on the campus and each student makes a unique contribution to the life of the institution, both academically and culturally.

The China Universities, traditionally occupy leading position in the world. Many of the medical Universities find a place in the World Health Organization (WHO)'s "Directory of World Medical Schools". This listing make a student graduating from such University eligible to appear for many of the screening tests like the USMLE, PLAB and also the newly introduced "Screening examination" conducted by the National Board Of Examinations, India, under the directive of the Medical Council of India. Many of the Universities have been established way back in 1935, like the China Medical University which is worldwide known and highly ranked.